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Title: Indiana abortion providers brace for ban
Originally reported on www.journalgazette.net by Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
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Indiana abortion providers brace for ban
Abortion clinics across Indiana are preparing to scale back their services or close entirely as a near-total ban on the procedure is set to go in into effect next month.
Although abortion remains legal for now, Senate Bill 1 – the first state-level ban passed after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – will be in force Sept. 15.
The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb just before midnight Aug. 5, includes few exceptions: pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, with a 10-week time limit; pregnancies that threaten the life of – or pose a “serious health risk” to – the pregnant woman; and pregnancies in which the fetus is diagnosed with a lethal fetal anomaly, with a 20-week time limit.
The new law also will terminate the licenses of abortion clinics and will require all abortions to be performed at hospitals or hospital-owned outpatient surgical centers.
Many clinics – including Planned Parenthood’s Fort Wayne Health Center, which has remained open despite no longer providing abortion services in recent years – offer health care services other than abortion. However, the new law will result in the closure of at least one clinic in Indiana.
Sharon Lau, Midwest advocacy director of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, said last week the organization’s lone Indiana location will continue to see patients and provide abortions until the ban goes into effect. After that, Whole Woman’s Health of South Bend, which opened only a few years ago, will not be “financially viable,” Lau said.
The South Bend clinic has performed an average of 361 abortions per year over the past two years, roughly 4.5% of all abortions in the state during that time.
Ensuring access
Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, emphasized that abortion is still legal in Indiana and said the organization’s legal team is working to analyze SB 1.
“What we’re doing right now is exploring every legal option available to stop this devastating outcome of having abortion being outlawed in the state,” Gibron said.
Planned Parenthood, which operates multiple abortion clinics in the state, would remain open to provide other services after the near-ban on abortions goes into effect.
Gibron said Planned Parenthood is the only source of medical care for 70% of the patients the organization serves.
“We provide a whole range of critical health care services outside of abortion,” Gibron said. “That includes birth control, gender-affirming hormone care, emergency contraception, wellness visits. Our health centers in Indiana will continue to provide those services in addition to providing any care we can to those looking for abortion.”
Lau and Gibron both said their organizations have programs to help patients who are forced to travel to other states after SB 1 goes into effect.
“We will do everything we can to get patients access,” Gibron said, “even if that means helping them leave the state to get abortion care.”
She said Planned Parenthood has prepared for this moment for a long time and that it is “built for this.” The organization has a patient navigation team to help advise and assist patients.
Gibron also recommended the website AbortionFinder.org, a searchable database of verified abortion providers around the U.S.
Whole Woman’s Health Alliance established its Wayfinder Program earlier this year, Lau said. And the organization works with established abortion funds and practical support networks.
“That program is basically a kind of internal travel agency where we will help patients with logistical support in booking flights or trains to get them to appointments in other states,” Lau said. “That is something we will continue to ramp up and, hopefully, it will be able to help Indiana patients travel to other states as well.”
The nonprofit has had to shutter its operations in Texas, where pre-Roe v. Wade laws restricting abortion are back in effect. It is in the process of opening a new clinic across the border in New Mexico, where abortion remains legal.
Lau said Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, which also operates clinics in Virginia, Maryland and Minnesota, is considering a similar strategy in Illinois.
“We’re looking at various options in Illinois and just trying to figure out where would be the best place,” Lau said.
‘Haven state’
With Indiana’s new ban and trigger laws banning abortion in states including Kentucky and Missouri, options for abortion care in the Midwest continue to narrow.
In Michigan, a legal battle continues over a 1931 law that would ban abortion in the state, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.
A constitutional amendment to affirm the right to abortion could be on the ballot in that state as well but, for now, the future of abortion access in Indiana’s neighbor to the north is unclear.
That leaves Illinois as the “one haven state of access” in the “vast desert” of the Midwest, Planned Parenthood of Illinois’ Julie Uhal said. She manages the organization’s expansion program SAFE – Securing Access For Everyone.
The potential fall of Roe v. Wade had been on Planned Parenthood’s radar since the 2016 election, Uhal said, so the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn that precedent in Dobbs v. Jackson earlier this summer was “not unexpected.”
“There were threats to protections for abortion access” throughout the Midwest, Uhal said. “So we have been preparing for this scenario for years, and have done a lot of work to increase our help center capacity in order to see patients who are forced to travel from other states to Illinois.”
In 2018, Planned Parenthood of Illinois opened the Flossmoor Health Center in a southern Chicago suburb a few miles from the Indiana border. The organization also operates a clinic in Waukegan, a similar distance from the border between Illinois and Wisconsin.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois has launched a partnership with its counterpart in Wisconsin to allow medical providers to get licensed in Illinois and work at the Waukegan clinic, Uhal said. As for similar plans with Indiana?
“Nothing that I can talk about at this time,” Uhal said. “But we certainly have ongoing conversations with them about how to best serve our patients.”
Crossing borders
Many Hoosiers already travel out of state for abortion services. Illinois, which has a law on the books protecting the right to abortion access, has fewer restrictions than Indiana – even now, before SB 1 is enacted.
An average of 1,903 Indiana residents received induced pregnancy terminations annually in Illinois from 2016 to 2020, according to data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. During that time, the Indiana Department of Health reported an average of 7,119 terminated pregnancies of Hoosiers in Indiana.
Restrictions in neighboring states have dramatically increased demand for abortions in Illinois. In the months leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood clinics in Illinois saw around 100 out-of-state patients per month, Uhal said. After the ruling, that number rose to 750 in just one week.
“The increase has really been exponential, but we have been able to increase our supply at the same time that demand is increasing,” Uhal said. “So we’re able to meet those needs, and so far we have not seen too significant a change in wait times.”
Planned Parenthood’s projections estimate its Illinois clinics will see an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients each year. Uhal said the organization’s plans to increase capacity are a “marathon, not a sprint.”
She said SB 1 will not reduce the demand for abortions among Indiana residents. That claim is borne out by data from Texas, which implemented a six-week ban last fall. The New York Times reported that two studies from researchers at the University of Texas showed the total number of Texans who received abortions declined by only 10% because many pregnant women traveled to clinics in nearby states or ordered medication online.
“Abortion bans and restrictions don’t stop people from needing abortions and from having them. They just make it more difficult to access,” Uhal said. “This disproportionately affects people that are the most affected by social inequalities.”
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